Under Section 17c of the Israel Patent Law, it is possible to get a patent in Israel for claims that correspond to those that issued in a related patent granted byan examining authority having suitable examination standards, without substantive examination by the Israel Patent Authority as to novelty, inventive step, unity of invention and adequate disclosure.
In what my colleague, veteran patent attorney and former Senior Israel Examiner, Shimon Shalit, considers a welcome development, the Commissioner of Patents, Dr. Meir Noam has ruled that:
One can request modified examination even without a common priority, if the Israel Application and the foreign allowed patent are identical.
If the foreign allowed patent includes claims for therapeutical treatment of humans that under Section 7 of the law are not allowable, these may be replaced by Swiss-type use claims that are considered allowable.
The list of acceptable countries includes Austria, the United States Patent Office (USPTO), Germany, Denmark, the UK, the Russian Federation, Japan, the European Patent Office (EPO) , Norway, Canada and Sweden. Australia used to be included, but recently was dropped from the list.
One can request modified examination even without a common priority, if the Israel Application and the foreign allowed patent are identical.
questions:
1. how is one going to determine whether the Israel Application and the foreign application is identical.
2. under what circumstances, you think the scenario will arise?
Thank you
Applicant, his/her attorney or examiner can compare the two documents. Not exciting, but certainly doable.
Typically, both documents are in English. One can conform the Israel application to that abroad by substituting the text of the foreign patent in its entirety. If the foreign patent is not in English, then a certified translation can be used. Please contact me if you are interested in specfic advice for handling a specific case, and I will try to help you.